Results for "Baltimore"

Jeron White

Born: September 28, 1982

Michael Raitzyk

Michael Raitzyk has been one of the top jazz guitarists in the Baltimore-Washington area. Acclaimed for his solid rhythm chops and improvisatory imagination, Raitzyk has played with everyone from Pepper Adams and Mel Torme to Clifford Jordan and Bill Hardman. Raitzyk's versatility has allowed him to play in a variety of settings—from solo recitals to bop combos to big-band dates. Raitzyk learned his big-band education by working in such outfits as the Gene Walker Big Band, Blue Unity, Ed Goldstein's Baltimore Jazz Orchestra, and Hank Levy's Towson State Jazz Ensemble. He honed his small-combo skills in such bands as the Sir Thomas Hurley Trio, Society Red, the Coffee Club and the Mack Rucks Ensemble. Although he is best known for his jazz work, Raitzyk has been welcome in many different musical environments

Ben Wolfe

Born: August 3, 1962

Bassist-composer, Ben Wolfe, has recently released his new CD, “No Strangers Here” on MAXJAZZ. As Wynton Marsalis said, “Ben Wolfe swings with authority.” And as can be heard from Ben’s original compositions on this, his fifth and newest CD, Ben also innovates and “scores” with authority. Downbeat Magazine says, “ He hews to the esthetic of group interplay and the rhythm’s of bebop, and displays a well-honed sense of sonic narrative.” In January 2008, The New York Sun reviewed Ben’s new composition, “From Here I See,” created for the Harlem in the Himalayas series at the Rubin Museum, as a piece “Bernstein would doubtlessly have approved of.” Like many of Ben’s compositions, this 25-minute Suite fell into line with the jazz concept of a double quartet " a format that combines the standard jazz quartet with the standard string quartet. Ben Wolfe’s work is a true ensemble " expressed in the group sound, rather than dominated by extended solo compositions

Seth Kibel

Born: August 17, 1974

Seth Kibel is one of the Mid-Atlantic's premier woodwind specialists, working with some of the best bands in jazz, swing, and more. Wowing audiences on saxophone, clarinet, and flute, Seth has made a name for himself in the Washington/Baltimore region, and beyond. He is the featured performer with The Kleztet, Bay Jazz& Project, Music Pilgrim Trio, The Natty Beaux, and more. Winner of 28 Washington Area Music Awards (Wammies), including "Best World Music Instrumentalist" (2003-11) and "Best Jazz Instrumentalist" (2005, 2007-8, 2011-14). His most recent recording, "Clown With A Stick," was released in May 2023 on the Azalea City Recordings record label. He's won numerous prizes in the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest (MASC) including the Grand Prize in 2016 and a Gold Prize in 2022.

Kenny Wright

Born: March 10, 1970

Kenny Wright Bassist Kenny Wright is a native of Baltimore,Maryland. During his career he has performed with Violinst Michael White, Stevie Wonder, ,Roger Collins(You're Lookin' Good'), Oscar Brown Jr ( The Work Song ), Flutist Bobbi Humphrey and others.Known as a strong bandleader, he has opened shows with his own group for Kim Waters, Glady's Knight and Walter Beasley. Kenny's strong songwriting and producing skills have seen him release three solo CD's that have garnered critical acclaim and have gotten as much airplay around the country as projects done by major studio's.A new CD is set to be released in the spring of 2006

Carl Grubbs

Born: July 27, 1944

Carl Grubbs performs on alto, soprano and tenor saxophones and clarinet. He is an accomplished composer, educator and performing artist. A native of Philadelphia, he received early extensive training from John Coltrane and his brother Earl Grubbs.​ The Carl Grubbs Ensemble performs his original compositions and jazz standards in cities in the U.S. They have performed at jazz festivals in Bogota and Medellin, Columbia, S.A. and most recently an eight-city tour of Brazil.

Through his family, Carl Grubbs was close to many of the history-making musicians of the 1950’s and 1960’s. With his brother, Earl Grubbs, he formed The Visitors, a quintet that recorded four albums for the Muse record label.

Larry Willis

Born: December 20, 1942

Pianist Larry Willis has had an important and distinguished 40-year career in jazz. Since making his recording debut on Jackie McLean’s landmark 1965 album “Right Now!,” the New York-born Willis has played everything from free jazz to fusion to rock while performing as a valued sideman with such jazz titans as Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Morgan, Cannonball Adderley, Art Blakey and Woody Shaw. Larry was born in 1942 in Manhattan’s Harlem. Surprisingly, he entered music not as a pianist but as a voice major, first at New York’s High School of Music and Art for gifted students, then at the Manhattan School of Music

Bill Warfield

A dynamic and innovative composer, bandleader and trumpeter, Bill Warfield has energized audiences, performers and writers for more than four decades. Warfield’s most recent accomplishments are Mercy Mercy Mercy, recorded on the BluJazz label by the Hell’s Kitchen Funk Orchestra in 2015 and Trumpet Story with Randy Brecker on Planet Arts Records, recorded in 2014. These recordings are a celebration of the composer’s formative musical experiences. The two groups perform Jazz selections based on the genres of funk, Latin Jazz, and Hard Bop, all arranged by Warfield. Bill Warfield holds an M.M

Janet Lawson

Born: November 13, 1940

Born in Baltimore to a family of professional musicians, Janet Lawson made her singing debut at the age of three and later in her teens performed with big bands. After moving to New York, she began her studies with distinguished composer/arranger Hall Overton and made her debut appearance in the Village Vanguard with the Art Farmer Quartet. Throughout her career she has appeared with, among other jazz greats, Duke Ellington, Tommy Flanagan, Joe Newman, Barney Kessel, Milt Hinton, Ron Carter, Barry Harris, Dave Liebman, David and Lida Baker, Rufus Reid, Clark Terry, Billy Hart, Cedar Walton, Billy Higgins and Bob Dorough. Lawson was soprano soloist with the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre in Blood Memories at City Center, New York, and composed and created, with lyricist Diane Snow, the musical Jass is a Lady, supported by NEA and ASCAP Theatre Workshop and produced by Playwrights Horizons in New York City

Eubie Blake

Born: February 7, 1887

Ragtime music, with its syncopated, polyrhythmic style, was born, in the 1890s in the black saloons and brothels of southern and mid-western cities like Baltimore and St. Louis. It was at the center of American popular music from the end of the nineteenth century until the 1920s. One of the most enduring ragtime pianists was Eubie Blake, who took that music well into the 1980’s. Eubie Blake was one of the most important figures in early-20th-century African-American music, and one whose longevity made him a storehouse of the history of ragtime and early jazz music and culture. Born in Baltimore in 1883, Blake began playing piano professionally when he was 16; he wrote his first composition, "Sounds of Africa," (later retitled "Charleston Rag") around the same time